Australia is facing a shortage of medicine vital for cancer diagnoses due to a mechanical fault at the Lucas Heights nuclear medicine facility. Less than three months after production was suspended at the new Australian nuclear medicine facility when two workers were exposed to an unsafe dose of radiation , the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has confirmed another shutdown occurred on Friday. While Ansto insists there are “no safety implications” from the failure, a shortfall in production of the radioisotope molybdenum-99 or Mo-99 could have severe implications. Ansto admitted Australia was experiencing “significant impacts on availability of nuclear medicine”, and doctors have told Guardian Australia that unless production resumes they will be forced to “play Pontius Pilate” with their patients’ health. Australia’s high cancer survival rates attributed to earlier detection Read more “This will be a crisis by next week,” the director of Kalgoorlie Medical Imaging in […]

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